Taking Chances
by Stelena-Beautiful
Summary: Will Luke take a chance on finding love and maybe even happiness, post-Reid? A Ryan's Hope and ATWT crossover - starring Luke Snyder and Owen Ryan. Thanks for checking it out.


**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

Hello. Please let me introduce you to my newest story. In this tale, our beloved – if beleaguered - Luciano will find happiness again (eventually!) with none other than Owen Ryan - of _**Ryan's Hope,**_ of course. The way I am writing Owen is mostly conjecture on my part since we, the viewers, never got to actually see him grow up on **RH** before it was cancelled. However, I choose to believe that Owen is an openly proud gay man and a tad Reid-like. Consider that they are both doctors (I figured it was a good career for Owen for many reasons, including the fact that his uncle Pat was a doctor, as is his step-grandfather Roger, so it's a family thing) and like Reid, Owen is sexy, sinful and confidant. Not to mention quick with the quips. Owen resembles Dave Franco in my mind – so he's highly doable too. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. Let us begin…

**CHAPTER ONE**

_**November 25th, 2011**_

_**New York City**_

"This is madness," Luke Snyder muttered to himself as he tried to force his way through a huge crowd of people milling around outside FAO Schwartz. Thanksgiving had come and gone the day before and the nightmare occasion known as Black Friday had arrived. It wasn't even six a.m. yet and people dressed in bulky winter coats were literally lined up, some pounding on the doors of the toy store, demanding to be let in to see all of the so-called bargains. Luke wondered what had made him think that taking a morning jog born of pure restlessness was actually a good idea on today of all days. He had nearly been trampled twice just crossing the damn street.

Someone shoved him fiercely from behind and he growled at them. He wanted to chew them out but it didn't seem to be worth his time. He had a jog to finish anyway. Central Park was calling his name.

Luke had been living in the city for six months now. He had picked up and moved here one day on an impulse when he couldn't take the cloying "smallness" of Oakdale any longer. He remembered now how he had spent last year's holidays before he got the hell out of dodge. He spent Thanksgiving sitting outside in the cold at the farm watching the pond while everyone inside feasted on turkey and gravy. Of course they had tried multiple times to get him to come inside and eat but he couldn't. He couldn't endure the thought of holiday cheer when everything was so fucked up. _It made him think of all the holidays he hadn't gotten to spend with Reid…_

Christmas had been even worse. He lay in bed all day feeling sad and lonely. His mom finally coaxed him out around five p.m. and he saw his presents nestled under the tree untouched. He wondered what he might have gotten Reid if he hadn't gone and died and wondered what Reid would have given him in turn. Ear muffs and mittens wouldn't have cut it, that much he knew. He had found himself near tears as his mom forced him to unwrap a present. It was a new, expensively crafted Chess board. Lily had thought somehow it would make him feel better. She had been wrong. He remembered throwing it down and rushing from the room. He holed up in there for most of the rest of the year. New Year's Eve he stayed in too and watched the ball drop on TV with his youngest siblings, while his parents and Faith went to some charity ball. Faith came home bragging about how she had kissed a handsome guy twice her age at midnight and Luke just felt angry.

It was the loneliest winter ever and by spring he had been itching to get out of there. When he moved down streets he had travelled with Reid for too short a time, it made him feel bitter and angry and terribly depressed. There were stages of grieve he had heard but he'd gotten them all jumbled up and had certainly never gotten to the whole acceptance part of things. He couldn't accept Reid was dead and never coming back. Luke had turned into everything he never appreciated in other people – cold, bitter, distant and worst of all, disillusioned and unable to trust in anything or anyone anymore.

New York City was every bit as crazy and colorful as he had expected. He got a loft and a job at a record store to keep some cash flowing in. His parents would have gladly given him all he could handle but he didn't want that. He wanted to escape from it all. When one of his fellow cashiers had made the mistake of hitting on Luke, he'd told the guy off in quite colorful terms. No one had asked him out since and he was fine with it. It would have felt like a betrayal to Reid somehow though he knew somewhere deep down Reid wouldn't be okay with him practically shunning all human contact the way he did. Reid would want him to go on living.

The problem was that Luke hadn't figured out how to do that.

XoXoXo

It was well after nine a.m. when Luke finally returned to his loft sweaty and out of breath. Even on a cold day like this, his shirt was melded to his chest with sweat and his forehead was incredibly damp. He had run and run until he literally could not run anymore. It had helped him clear his mind somewhat. After all it was hard to think with no oxygen getting to his brain. But returning now, everything was returning to haunt him as well.

He sighed and yanked a bottle of water from the refrigerator. He downed the whole bottle in two gulps. He then started heading to the shower when he saw the light blinking on the answering machine. He had one message. He wondered which of his relatives it was this time - his mom using her softest voice to beg him to come home or maybe his father Holden saying in a scratchy voice that they missed him and wouldn't he call them; or maybe it was his grandmother Lucinda saying he needed to buck up and stop hiding out in that crazy city and come home already. She'd often add_, "I love you, Luke. Don't forget that, grandson of mine. But by god, come home soon because I am holding a lucrative position for you at Worldwide. Your mother says you're slumming it at some hippie record store which sounds utterly dreadful."_

Luke sighed and pressed the replay button against this better judgment. "Luke, it's your Mom," Lily's voice came over the machine. "I miss you, I honestly do, but I know how you feel about all that… Anyway, I am calling for a particular reason today. I've got some important news I need to pass along to you. So call me today please, sometime. I love you. Bye, son."

Luke sighed again. He didn't want to call her back. He didn't care about any news his Mom might relay to him. It was probably just gossip anyway.

Still, curiosity got the better of him. Plus, he knew that Lily would recruit others to hound him until he relented and returned her call. He picked up the phone and quickly dialed before he could change his mind.

The phone rang twice and then he heard his mother's voice. "Snyder residence."

"Hey," Luke said in a low voice.

"Luke! You actually called back. I mean – well, I'm very glad to hear from you."

Luke rested his elbows on the countertop and tucked the phone against his ear. "Yeah so you said you had news?"

"I do. It's about the neuro-wing…"

Luke swallowed hard. "Oh yeah?"

"Yes. The contractors said it will be completely done by next week. Can you believe that, Luke? How amazing is that?"

"Pretty amazing," he admitted. "But what does that have to do with me exactly?"

"Everything! You and Reid helped make this happen in a big way! Anyway, your grandmother and I spoke to the hospital board and we all decided that we want _you_ to be at the opening to cut the ribbon and do all the grand-opening _stuff."_ Lily sounded so nervous. Had she always been that way or was it just the whole walking on eggshells around him thing popping up again?

Luke rubbed his eyes which suddenly burned. "I appreciate the sentiment, Mom, I do but –"

"Luke, this would be a fabulous way to honor Reid and all he did for this hospital and its patients."

"Including giving up his own organs …"

"Luke, he was a good man. Even until the end, he was making a difference."

"Yeah and what a difference it made in _my_ life," Luke grumbled.

"I know you loved him with everything you had inside. I know. I have lost a lot of people I loved too. When Holden was presumed dead –"

"'Presumed dead'," Luke said. "As in, he could come back. We know for a fact that Reid can't. And anyway, if I recall correctly you 'mourned' Dad's death by shacking up Damian."

"Luke, that's not fair."

"It's the truth, isn't it?"

"Yes but-" 

"No buts," Luke said rudely.

Lily sighed softy. "Luke, please come home for this at least. Reid wouldn't want you to run away from everyone who loves you."

"How do you know what Reid would want? It's not like you spent tons of time with him."

"I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't want you to be miserable forever."

Luke scowled. "Whatever."

"Luke, we're doing the whole grand opening on Christmas Eve. We'd love for you to make it and come meet the new staff. The administrators at Memorial found an excellent doctor to head up the department."

Luke scowled still more. "Fabulous, but he'll never be Reid."

"Maybe not…"

"No, definitely not. Reid should be running this. It was _his_ dream and I don't want to be around to see anyone else enjoying the fruits of all his hard work."

"Luke, it will save a lot of lives."

"Hmm, too bad it's not a cardiology unit then. Maybe someone could have saved Reid."

"Luke, don't –"

"Don't be that way, right? Don't be angry? Well sorry, I can't help it. No, I'm not sorry. I am never going to accept this. I am never going to accept Reid isn't here with me. I was the one who basically turned off the machines keeping him alive…"

"He was brain dead, honey."

"What if there was another way?" Luke cried. He hadn't shed a single tear in months but leave it to his dear mother to force them to come on full force.

"Luke, there wasn't and it's not your fault. It will never be your fault. Bad things happen to good people."

"Talk about a cliché. Look, Mom, I have to go. It's Black Friday. They could probably use an extra hand at the store. Talk to you later."

"Luke –" Lily started but he slammed down the phone.

He looked around at his little loft, devoid of every picture and memento that could remind him of how things used to be, and he hated it. He dragged his arm across the counter top and watched as everything clattered to the floor. The empty fruit bowl he always kept there for whatever reason cracked into so many irreparable pieces that Luke knew it could never be fixed…

TO BE CONTINUED

_**So I know. This is totally angsty and depressing this far, right? I am just thinking how Luke could realistically feel about losing the love of his life so unexpectedly. Hang on tight though. It will get better eventually. Thanks for reading.**_


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